1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thermal printer for printing characters, bar codes, etc. onto delivery slips, for example.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the distribution business, such as a home delivery system, it is required to attach delivery slips to parcels. Such a delivery slip is roughly divided into a section that serves a function as a tag and a section that serves a function as a slip. The tag is attached to a parcel to display identity information therefor and remains attached after the parcel has been delivered to a consignee. To take the home delivery system as an example, the slip is generally composed of an invoice and a trader""s management slip. The invoice is a slip for notifying that a parcel has been delivered. The trader""s management slip is a slip that the deliverer takes away for management purposes at the delivery of the parcel to a consignee. In any case, the invoice and the trader""s management slip are separated from the delivery slip at the parcel has been delivered to a consignee or a substitute therefor.
Here, in the case of a delivery slip to be attached to a parcel, since entries in the invoice and the trader""s management slip in the slip section are substantially identical to each other, copy paper is generally used in the slip section.
In an attempt to cause a thermal printer to print a bar code and characters on a delivery slip which uses a recording medium with copy-disabled area for the tag section and a recording medium with a copy-enabled area for the slip section, determining the energy applied to the thermal head to suit the recording medium section having the copy-enabled area results in a problem of wasteful consumption of energy in the copy-disabled area.
Moreover, determining the printing speed to suit the copy-enabled area results in a lower printing speed than is necessary in the copy-disabled area. There is a consequent problem that much time is required to issue one delivery slip.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a thermal printer, adapted to make printing onto a recording medium having a print area where copying is unnecessary and a print area where copying is required, which allows the applied energy and printing speed to be set most suitably.
According to the present invention, there is provided a thermal printer that makes printing onto a recording medium having a print area where copying is unnecessary and a print area where copying is necessary on one page, characterized by comprising: a thermal head; a thermal head driving means for driving the thermal head so as to decrease the applied energy to the thermal head for the print area where copying is unnecessary below that for the print area where copying is necessary.
According to the present invention, in a thermal printer adapted to print onto a recording medium having a print area where copying is unnecessary and a print area where copying is required, the applied energy and the printing speed can be set most suitably.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.